1. Up-date on the on-going work on: Buildings
Oliver Wolf & Alicia Boyano Larriba
Joint Research Centre (JRC)
IPTS - Institute for Prospective Technological Studies
Seville - Spain

2. Identification of proposal for further criteria development
Progress: BUILDINGS
Analysis and evaluation of 3rd draft criteria for Buildings and next steps
Identification of proposal for further criteria development
1. Definition of a new scope for the product group “buildings” and prioritization of the individual building products
2. Relevant legislation, voluntary agreements and labeling initiatives at EU and third countries level
3. Identification of the common points and differences from the 3rd draft criteria and the main member states labels
4. Revision of comments of stakeholders on the 3rd draft criteria
5. Main conclusions and recommendations

3. Definition and classification based on functionality
Progress: BUILDINGS
Definition of a new scope and prioritization
EPBD definition: a roofed construction having walls, for which energy is used to condition the indoor climate; a building may refer to the building as a whole or parts thereof that have been designed or altered to be used separately
Product group definition (EC 66/2010): a set of products that serve similar purposes and are similar in terms of use, or have similar functional properties and are similar in terms of consumer perception
Definition and classification based on functionality
The main points to develop an Ecolabel for just a building product are:
Better to limit the scope of the Ecolabel since it should be focused on just one type of building to fulfil the requirements of the Ecolabel regulation (similar in terms of use and similar functional porperties)
Classification based on the function
Residential buildings
Single family houses
Multi-family houses
High rise buildings
Non-residential buildings
Hotels and restaurants
Commercial and office buildings
Educational buildings
Sport facilities…

4. NEW AND EXISTING BUILDINGS
Progress: BUILDINGS
Definition of a new scope and prioritization
Classification based on functionality of the building agrees with other MS labels
BUILDING TYPES
BREEAM
HQE
DGNB
Residential
Single family X
Multi-family
Non-residential
Courts
Educational
Office
Healthcare
Prisons
Retail
Industrial/storage
Leisure halls
Restaurants
Hotels
NEW AND EXISTING BUILDINGS

5. Definition of a new scope and prioritization
Progress: BUILDINGS
Definition of a new scope and prioritization
Prioritization criteria:
1.- Significant environmental impact (LCA of the building)
2.- Large aggregated stock figures in EU (Market analysis)
3.- Potential for environmental improvement
4.- Contribution to a greater harmonization among the MS labels and product policies such as GPP
5.- Probable effectiveness of an Ecolabel in the product group

6. Definition of a new scope and prioritization
Progress: BUILDINGS
Definition of a new scope and prioritization
BUILDING TYPES
Environ
impact
Potential
improvement
Probable
effectiveness
Harmonization
Stock
in EU
Residential
Single family
High
Medium
Low
Multi-family
Non-residential
Courts --
Educational
Office
Healthcare
Prisons
Retail
Industrial
Leisure halls
Restaurants
Hotels

7. Definition of a new scope and prioritization
Progress: BUILDINGS
Definition of a new scope and prioritization
OFFICE BUILDINGS, are proposed to be firstly addressed :
Expected to significantly increase their environmental impact
higher energy consumption: lighting and HVAC
increasing their floor area
Important potential for reduction their environmental impact
up to 70% in new buildings (design)
higher rate of refurbishment
- High harmonization potential with other product policies
- Ecolabel criteria will inform private procurement decisions for office buildings (new or refurbishment)
- GPP criteria can be derived relatively easy
- MS labels for office buildings exist in most of the countries

8. Analysis of MS labels and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Progress: BUILDINGS
Analysis of MS labels and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Energy consumption
Energy criteria should be carefully set up as energy consumption causes the highest environmental impact of a building
MS labels set up total energy consumption close to 50kWh/m2/year
Improvements suggested by the stakeholders:
Benchmarks for total energy consumption as explicitly stated in EPBD 2010
Clear benchmarks based on either primary or final energy consumption
Introduction of correction factors to adequate the total energy consumption benchmark to the:
Climatic area - Altitude
Used fuel - Age of the building

9. Analysis of MS labels and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Progress: BUILDINGS
Analysis of MS labels and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Energy consumption
Improvements suggested by the stakeholders:
Transformation of the criteria related to renewable energy consumption into building related ones
Promotion of low energy consumption lighting and automatic controls
Recommendation of using daylight
Promotion of sustainable means of transportation: proper storage of bicycles, lack of car parking, etc
Minimum heat transmission coefficient through the building shell depending on the degree day figures of the area
Controlled ventilation ratios without promoting any technology (e.g. passive ventilation)

10. Analysis of MS labels and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Progress: BUILDINGS
Analysis of MS labels and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Selection of materials
Evaluate the necessity of a new building and try to avoid its construction by reusing old ones.
Avoid criteria related to providing information without setting up benchmarks
Improvements suggested by the stakeholders:
- Improvement of the criteria related to wood and wood-based materials: avoiding preference for non-renewable materials, mention certificates that are accepted, establishing general requirements on chemicals
- Revision of criteria related to service lifetime, % of recycled or re- used materials, labeled materials, transportation limitations, etc according to the results of the LCA analysis
- Set up preference criteria for material selection in accordance to the CEN/TC 350 standards

11. Analysis of MS label and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Progress: BUILDINGS
Analysis of MS label and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Water consumption and management
Promotion of reduction water consumption of inhabitants
Preserve the quality of water by harvesting rainwater and wastewater separately
Improvements suggested by the stakeholders:
Use rainwater depending on the availability of clean water and economic situation
Not let drain rainwater into public sewage treatment
Restrict to dual-flushing toilets consuming 4-2l/flushing

12. Analysis of MS label and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Progress: BUILDINGS
Analysis of MS label and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Waste management
Construction waste is proposed to be sorted and collected for a proper valorization (including the reuse and recycling)
Operation waste is proposed to be separated by ensuring the proper installations, the accessibility of inhabitants to the installations and the possibility of enlargement in the future.
Improvements suggested by the stakeholders:
Sorting out domestic waste into: paper, glass, biowaste, packaging and non-recycled rubbish
Limitation of bins capacity

13. Analysis of MS label and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Progress: BUILDINGS
Analysis of MS label and 3rd draft criteria for buildings
Health and well-being
Criteria combined with energy consumption (thermal comfort)
Extremely difficult to be harmonized as well-being depends not only on climatic conditions but also on tradition and lifestyles.
Improvements suggested by the stakeholders:
Ventilation passive systems are not acceptable for indoor climate and energy perspectives
Explicit criteria in IAQ and emissions from construction products should be developed
Set up stricter limits for materials used for interiors, VOC emissions in indoor environment…

14. Main conclusions and recommendations
Progress: BUILDINGS
Main conclusions and recommendations
Goal of this study: identify proposals for potential further criteria development
1.- New Scope: OFFICE BUILDINGS
- Increasing environmental impact due to the excepted increase in energy consumption (lighting and HVAC) and floor area
- High improvement potential: higher renovation rate
- High potential of harmonization with MS labels and product policies
- High potential of effectiveness of the ecolabel
- Large market aggregated stock in the EU
2.- REVISION OF ENVIRONMENTAL CRITERIA based on LCA
- Energy related criteria: stricter total energy consumption but depending on climatic area, altitude, used fuel, age…

15. Main conclusions and recommendations
Progress: BUILDINGS
Main conclusions and recommendations
- Energy related criteria: promotion of renewable energy as building related criteria; promotion of low consumption lighting and use of day lighting …
- Selection of materials: revision of service lifetime, % of recycled and reused materials, transportation limitations, preference of materials in accordance to the CEN/TC 350 standards, requirements on chemicals
- Water consumption and management: use of rainwater depending on availability, preserve the quality of water, promotion of reduction of water consumption of inhabitants
- Waste management: promotion of the sorting out and valorization of construction, operation and demolition waste
- Health and well-being: extremely difficult to be harmonized due to the different climatic conditions, traditions and lifestyles across Europe

16. Next steps
New preliminary report based on available information
New criteria proposal based on this preliminary report

17. Thank very much for your kind attention